Moscow. 4 December. REPORT.AZ/ The Joint Nuclear Research Institute is a world famous research center representing a unique example of successful integration of fundamental theoretical and experimental studies with the development and application of the state-of-the-art technology and university education. 18 countries including Azerbaijan are members of the Institute.
In the interview to Report, director of the Joint Nuclear Research Institute Viktor Matveyev spoke about the activity of the institute, joint projects with Azerbaijan and possible opening of its branch in Baku.
- Good afternoon, Victor Anatolyevich. The Republic of Azerbaijan is one of the member-states of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. Please, tell us about your collaboration with Azerbaijan.
- First of all, we can judge about how the work with the university is going on to build young talented personnel. Currently, the training of young specialists, the search for young talents is one of the most important tasks, including for the institute, the main direction of which is nuclear research. The role of searching talents is growing increasingly important not only in Russia, but also throughout the world. There is a global hunger for successful young people in the world, so we really appreciate when Azerbaijan sends us young people to participate in internships and special summer schools. Now we are very interested in the transition from summer schools to a competitive set of young children, and in this we see the contribution that our institute can make to the development of science in the participating countries, in general, and in Azerbaijan, in particular. After studying with us, they easily find job in their home countries, because everyone wants to have talented people in their home country, which creates opportunities for us to continue cooperation with these countries. This is a very important area of our collaboration.
- During the Soviet times, Russia, Azerbaijan and other republics had a common Soviet science, after the collapse everything broke down.What can you say about the current level of science in Azerbaijan?
- You know, in general, national science does not exist. Of course, each country trains its own personnel, prepares its own conditions for the development of research, but the largest and most important results are obtained by combining the efforts of the best specialists. Moreover, international cooperation ensures more outstanding strong and advanced results. I see, at least, by those colleagues who we keep in touch with that they understand that it is impossible to create all the necessary conditions in each country, including experimental ones, therefore cooperation is essential here. But we must, of course, continue working in this direction.
- What other joint projects do you do with Azerbaijan, beside educating students?
- There are projects that are being implemented here, in Dubna, with the participation of physicists from Azerbaijan, and quite priority are mega-science projects, for example, participating in the preparation of experiments on the superconducting collider of heavy ions NICA (Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility) - collider of protons and heavy ions under construction since 2013 at the Laboratory of High Energy Physics (LHEP) of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in the city of Dubna, Moscow Region.
The planned completion of construction - 2020 - ed). A whole large group of Azerbaijani scientists works here, who conduct preparatory work at the highest level.
We always attach great importance to the completion of the preparatory work, because very soon there will be opportunities for conducting research at the highest level and now it is very important to prepare for this matter, including looking for capable personnel. We see that a lot of common work is being done in the European Research Association, where we participate jointly in advanced projects.
- Are there plans to open a branch of the Institute for Nuclear Research in Baku?
- You know, we talked a lot about it, and generally we long sought for it. I think the time has come to take such joint projects seriously, because this will increase the closeness of our contacts and make them more effective. It is not financial contributions that are very important for us, but intellectual cooperation, which significantly increases the level of research. Therefore, we are planning to create either representative offices of the institute or branches of the institute in the participating countries. For example, it is possible to create virtual laboratories so that each scientist could be in constant contact with others while in his own country and share knowledge and experience. I think the plenipotentiary representative of Azerbaijan in our country, Nazim Mammadov, is one of those people who will readily take up the implementation of this idea. I am upbeat about the development of our cooperation with Azerbaijan. We have very good prospects.
Iqbal Rustamov